Democratic congressional candidate Tom Malinowski is touting his time at the left-wing organization Human Rights Watch as national security experience.
Malinowski is running in New Jersey's 7th district to replace Republican Rep. Leonard Lance, who was first elected in 2008.
From 2002 to 2008, Malinowski was a registered lobbyist for Human Rights Watch, but the group amended it later to show his time as a lobbyist there ended in 2007.
While working for HRW, Malinowski campaigned against American support of the Israeli military. Malinowski opposed the United States supplying the Israeli Defense Forces with cluster munitions and asked then-Senator Hillary Clinton to not support Israel's construction of an "illegal" wall in the West Bank.
Additionally, Malinowski lobbied against armored bulldozers from America being sent to Israel and urged Israel to stop construction of so-called settlements in order to continue to receive military assistance from the United States.
Also during Malinowski's tenure at HRW, he lobbied against American operations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where terrorist detainees captured overseas are held by the U.S. Military. Malinowski and HRW have campaigned for the camp's detention center to be shut down.
Human Rights Watch is well known for its anti-Israel bias. Longtime director of HRW, Kenneth Roth, tweeted an article last year comparing white supremacy to pro-Israeli views. HRW has also been called out by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley for working with other organizations to undermine measures by the Trump administration which would reform the United Nations Human Rights Council's frequent attacks on Israel, while countries with legitimate human rights problems go untouched.
In addition to his work at Human Rights Watch, Malinowski worked under Secretary of State John Kerry as the assistant secretary for democracy, human rights, and labor from April 2014 to January 2017.
While working for Kerry in the State Department, Malinowski was a major proponent of the Iran nuclear deal. In the release of annual human rights reports by the State Department, Kerry and Malinowski have been criticized for downplaying Iran's human rights abuses while attempting to reach a deal with Iran.
Kerry acknowledged that the deal could supply Iran with funds that would be used in terrorist activities. Additionally, uranium enrichment would continue with much of it then being shipped to Russia. Also, the Obama administration allowed for charges to be dropped on several people suspected of working with Iran on components that were also being used to kill American troops in Iraq.
Malinowski said that he was "proud" to have worked for President Barack Obama, but acknowledged the massive failures in Syria that has perpetuated its civil war and allowed the Islamic State to grow.
Malinowski appeared on Morning Joe last week where he claimed the Democratic Party, including himself, were better qualified than Republicans to protect America.
"The Democratic Party is now the party of patriotism in this country, the party that is willing to defend our country against our true foreign adversaries, the party of law enforcement in this country that is willing to trust the FBI over Fox News, that will believe our intelligence community when they say our country is under attack," Malinowski said.